Naruto: Different Paths
by roguewritter89
Summary: Starts off during the Chunin Exams and goes from there. Main pairings are Naruto and Hinata. Eventual sub pairings later on. M for eventual themes and language.


Chapter 1

Different Paths

Naruto Uzumaki was not one to hide his emotions. At least...not the ones expected of him. But right now, he was furious. The girl that he had secretly admired and crushed on was barely able to stand as her cousin smirked at her arrogantly. Neji Hyuuga was enjoying himself. And Naruto was so close to snapping that he could hear the blood pounding in his ears. Inside his mind, Kyuubi was snapping, thrashing, and snarling at the Hyuuga, his fur standing straight up, his eyes crimsom as he called for the Hyuuga's blood. You see, Naruto and Kyuubi had meet each other during the most recent mission Naruto had been on in Wave. During their meeting, Naruto made Kyuubi a deal. He would give Kyuubi control of a shadow clone to do as he pleased as long as no one was harmed in the village in exchange for training from the great fox, along with use of his chakra. Kyuubi had been resentful and hadn't truly answered him, but had allowed Naruto easier acess to his chakra. Naruto listened as Neji mocked Hinata again.

"Why do you even try? Your weak and pathetic. Your useless. Nothing but a weak little bitch."

The Hokage along with every Jonin in the arena looked to Naruto to see blood red chakra swirling around him in a hellish glow. Down in the arena, Hinata stood tall, defiantly looking at Neji as the boy continued to smirk.

"No. I'm through trying to convice you otherwise. It is not I who is useless...It is you. Your too stubborn to even see the truth. You dishonor your father's memory." She told him calmly.

Neji's eyes widened in anger as his byuakugan activated. He gave a primal roar and charged, palm charged with Chakra.

"I"LL KILL YOU!" He bellowed.

Everyone tensed as the bloodlust was clear in his eyes. He was going to kill her.

"Oh my God! Hinata! Move!" Sakura screamed as Neji closed the distance.

Naruto's eye widened as he felt the chakra in him boil. With a resounding boom, a shockwave erupted from Naruto. Heads turned in his direction only to see nothing. A scream brought everyones eyes back to the arena. And what a sight it was. Standing between a struggling to stay standing Hinata and a seething Neji, was Naruto. But this Naruto was different. His hair was longer, but defying gravity. His head was down as his handband cloth, now longer and black, fluttered as the air settled. His orange jumpsuit was no more. Instead, a pair of black cargo pants with his kunai holster on the right leg, a black shirt with black body armor over the shirt, and a black cloak with the sleaves pushed up past the elbows with red flame trimming along the hem. He held his left arm up, and there were gasps to see a shinning silver katana pressing lightly into Neji's throat just above where his adams apple was. The killing intent was enough to make even the hardest Jonins in the arena feel fear at the boy. But what really sent shivers up their spines, was how evil his voice sounded.

"One more step, and you head rolls off your shoulders." He hissed at the dark haired Hyuuga.

"Why did you interfere?! She's nothing! Not worthy of anyone's protection! Weak little tr-"

Neji was silenced by the blade pusing against his throat hard enough to draw a small drop of blood.

"Finish that sentance...and it will be your last." Naruto warned him, arm still held straight.

Neji's retort was lost as he made eye contact with Naruto. Neji looked at Naruto with fear.

"Your...your eyes. What...what are you?" He asked with fear.

For Naruto's eyes had changed. They were blood red with the pupil stretched to the edges of the iris in a six armed whirlpool. Naruto simply glared at him as Neji started stepping back slowly, unable to even speak. Naruto sheathed his blade in the holster on his back and kept his gaze on Neji as Hinata was rushed off the floor. He could hear her protests, but there was nothing she could say to stay.

"Winner. Neji Hyuuga." The referee called.

Neji didn't move as Naruto locked eyes with him.

"Hyuuga. You will pay for what you have done to day." Naruto said as he broke eye contact and kneeled down.

Kakashi watched Naruto with curiosity as the blonde ran his fingers through Hinata's blood. He would speak to Naruto when the Hokage confronted him later, so for now, he simply observed his unpredictable student. Naruto rose to his feet and pointed his closed fist at Neji as the blood dripped off his fist.

"On this spilled blood...I vow to destroy you." He said calmly.

As they watched, Naruto vanished in a swirl of leaves and appeared next to Kakashi. Up close, the older man could see the changes. Whatever had happened, it had burned away any and all baby fat from the boy. Kakashi couldn't help but to see the striking simularities between this boy and his former sensei. Just as Kakashi was about to open his mouth to ask him if he was okay, he found Naruto looking at him, his eyes, completely normal.

"I'm fine sensei. And before you ask, I promise to tell you everything when I speak with the Hokage."

Kakashi nodded.

"Fair enough Naruto."

Kakashi had noticed that the boy had not looked away from him.

"Yes?" He askd plesantly.

"Just wondering if you'd like to have comeplete control over you sharingan eye. You did say you couldn't deactivate it."

Kakashi looked at him curiously.

"Well...it would be nice, but impossible."

Kakashi's eye widened when he saw Naruto's eyes change suddenly. He wanted to say something anything, but a sudden sharp pain behind his covered eye. He instinctively placed a hand over it as the pain ebbed away quickly. He looked at Naruto who's eyes had returned to normal. He gave Kakashi a faint smile.

"Try it now."

Kakashi hesitated but decided to trust Naruto as he pushed his headband up, but kept his eye tightly shut. Sighing, he opened both his eyes and was shocked. The sharingan was indeed inactive. He blinked a few times before he began to grin. He looked at Naruto and nodded his head.

"Thanks."

"No problum. If you want to activate it, just channel some chakra into the eye and you'll be able to use it."

Kakash wanted to thank him but was interrupted by the appearance of the Hokage himself. Kakashi nodded and the two followed the old man out of the arena.

xxxxx

Sarutobi wasn't a happy man at the moment. There was an unknown element right in this room. And it was from the blonde genin standing by the door. Sarutobi didn't even bother to put on a charade. He was worried and he didn't care if two of his shinobi knew it. He locked eyes with Naruto and gave him a hard peircing look.

"I want to know what that was." He demanded.

Naruto looked thoughtful before shrugging his shoulders.

"I'll try to explain. But you'd both better take a seat. This will be quite a shocking experiance for you two gentlemen." He said as he himself sat down, crossed his legs and folded his hands in his lap.

The two shared a look before sitting down. Naruto waited for a moment, allowing the two to get relativly comfortable.

"Alright. Well...to start with, the chakra burst that everyone felt was from the seal breaking." He began calmly.

Both men's eyes widened as the fear in the room mounted. Naruto chuckled, knowing exactly what they thought.

"Calm down. Kyuubi's not in control of me. In fact...he's no longer here." He said smiling.

"Explain." Sarutobi ordered cautiously.

"We are one. I have his memories and his chakra. As far as I can tell, and from the knowlage I have recently gained, I have formulated a theroy I'd like you to hear."

Sarutobi nodded. He had to admit. To hear Naruto talking this way was...disturbing.

"From what I can tell...the seal reacted to my emotions. The stronger they were, like anger, the more Kyuubi was able to leak out. During the match, as Neji belittled Hinata and tried to kill her, the extreme amounts of anger myself and my former resident felt forced the seal to shatter." Naruto paused and let the information sink in.

"In that moment, my father's secondary seal activated. An ingenius idea. And yes, I know who my father was." He said, catching their shocked looks. "The Fourth. Now, as for his seal. It was designed that should kyuubi's escape or release became imminant, and at that the point to where are souls were in sync with each other, it would force a fusion, or more in this case, a forced absorbtion."

"Now, my theory as to why I have his memories and why we fused is that because both of our hatred for Neji and the want for his death was so strong and focused on the same thing, the seal took it as that we were in sync and it forced his chakra and memories into me while the shattering of the primary seal forced the rest of his soul into the Death God's belly for the rest of etirnity." Naruto finished, amused at the looks upon their faces.

Sarutobi sat still for several seconds, taking in everything that he had been told and sighed, lighting his pipe. All the evidence pointed to the theroy beinging correct. He glanced at Naruto as the boy looked at him plesantly.

"I second your theroy. All the evidence points to a forced absorbtion. Now, we move on to the question of your eyes. I won't ask about how you knew who your father was because that information probably came from kyuubi."

Naruto sighed.

"Ah, yes. My eyes. They are rather unique. A final gift from my mother. Her clans own bloodlimit. The Razangan. It is rather advanced for someone of my age, but I believe it is that way beause of the recent absorbtion."

Sarutobi nodded and pulled out a scroll and looked over it, confirming that he was indeed the carrier. Kakashi looked at Naruto curiously.

"What about the katana?" He asked.

"The Kitsune Blade. It is passed down from each King of foxes. Once I absorbed kyuubi, I became king of the foxes."

Sarutobi rubbed his temples as he closed his eyes.

"Naruto. Go to your apartment, and await further instructions. You've caused major waves today, and I have to smooth over several ruffled feathers."

"No. I will be at the hospital." He said, rising to his feat.

"Why?" Kakashi asked him.

Naruto had a hand on the door frame as he glanced back over his shoulder.

"To make sure Hinata-chan is alright."

The two watched as he walked out and vanished from sight.

"He'll be the death of me." Sarutobi grumbled.

"Or the one to save your life." Kakashi countered as he too took his leave of the elderly man.

xxxxx

(Timeskip three weeks...)

Naruto was breathing heavily as he eyed his clone. Both were sweating profusly and huffing from the exertion. Naruto lowered his center of gravity, bending his knees slightly more than he normally would have, one hand held out, plam facing his clone while the other was a fist on his righ hip, his left hip pointed at the clone, his left foot forward and his right foot perdendicular to the clone. The two tensed. Naruto felt the sweat run down his exposed back as his clone surged forward. To the normal eye, it looked like it had vanished, but it hadn't. Naruto qucikly deflected the clones hammerfist with his left forearm, while he thrusted his right arm at the clones jaw. Using it's left hand, it caught the punch and shoved it away. Naruto turned with the momentum and lowered himself onto all fours as the clone tried to punch the original in the head. Naruto tried to sweep the clones feet put from under him as the clone lept up. Naruto rolled to his left, avoiding a heel to his head. He struck out his right leg, hurtling him into the clone, his fist connecting with it's throat. Naruto could hear the snapping of the bones, the rattled gasp from the clone and the gurgle of blood from the bust arteries in it's neck. It flew six meters before slamming into a tree, a sickening cruch heard as Naruto recovered. He walked over to the clone, watching as it twitched several times before becomeing still. Using a kunai, Naruto dispersed the clone, regaing it's memories. He shivered at the unpleasentness of the neck being broke and nodded grimly. He wipped his forehead off and went to the stream and gathered his gear. He decided not to even bother putting his shirt back and walked back to his apartment. He didn't miss the glances he got. They were more startled than anything. A well muscled twelve year old was out of the ordinary, especially for a ninja village. Naruto huffed in anoyance when he noticed several girls his age, eyeing him like he was a peice of meat.

_**"And your complaining, why?"**_

Naruto froze. He recognized that voice.

"_How?_" was all he asked.

_**"Get back to your apartment and I'll explain there."**_

Naruto wasted no time getting back. This would be interesting to say the least.

xxxxx

Naruto stared into the mirror at his reflection, not happy one bit.

"Explain. Now."

His reflection smirked at him.

**"Well...as you can see...I'm still here. My memories took shape in your mind, recreating me. However comma pause for dramatic effect, since most of Kyuubi has passed on, a good protion of your personality was used as the frame work for me." **The reflection stated, grinning widly.

Naruto blinked several times before looking back at the mirror.

"So you basically the me...but with alot more of the foxes personallity and memories than mine."

The reflection grinned and clapped.

**"Bingo. Your little...outburst got rid of the fox...mostly. But guess what? You now have me. And I'm just as bad."**

Naruto closed his eyes tightly as insane laughter filled the room with Naruto wondering just how bad this new guy was.


End file.
